Nottingham Forest are always amongst the headlines when it comes to breaking transfer news but one deal from the mid-1990s was of particular note for English football.
Even after the January transfer window shut, Forest continue to be named in transfer gossip as Newcastle United pursue a deal for Anthony Elanga.
Another member of the Forest squad who garners transfer headlines is the Brazilian defender, Murillo, who signed a new Forest contract in January. Evangelos Marinakis will demand a world record fee for Murillo should the interest from Chelsea, Liverpool or Real Madrid become concrete.
Marinakis’ guile in the transfer market has led to the Forest owner garnering a reputation for smart decisions as of late, with Stuart Pearce praising Nuno Espirito Santo’s appointment despite initially being of the opinion that former boss Steve Cooper deserved more time in the role.
However, the club have not always made the smartest decisions despite having the best intentions, with one signing in 1995 breaking a Premier League record despite being a disaster at the City Ground.
Andrea Silenzi became the Premier League’s first Italian player at Nottingham Forest
The international nature of Espirito Santo’s Forest squad is, in relative terms, a recent phenomenon in English football. A perfect example of this is how long it took for an Italian player to play in the Premier League, with Forest being the team to bring the first to the league.
Having starred alongside the likes of Diego Maradona and Gianfranco Zola in Italy while also earning an international call-up, Silenzi joined Forest in 1995 to much excitement for more than just his nationality.
However, excitement soon turned to anger and disappointment for Forest fans as in 20 appearances, the Italian scored twice in cup competitions but never in the league, meaning that he somehow managed to miss out on being the first of his nation to score in the Premier League.
A target man like the prolific Chris Wood of current-day Forest, Silenzi reportedly never fit legendary Forest manager, Frank Clark’s system, following on from a season which saw Clark lead Forest to their best Premier League finish.
Clark has since been asked about what exactly happened with the Silenzi deal, specifically whether he refused to play for the club after being sent back to Italy on loan.
Frank Clark admitted ‘panic buy’ Andrea Silenzi refused to play for Nottingham Forest
To be fair to Silenzi, he had the near-impossible task of filling the boots of Stan Collymore, who had scored 25 goals for Forest in the previous season before being sold to Liverpool. Clark did go on to admit that Silenzi was perhaps the wrong option to replace the free-scoring Collymore.
Speaking to The Athletic, Clark said: “It was my fault. Silenzi was a panic buy. Because it was a panic buy, I was not able to do my usual thorough checks on him. Stan [Collymore] had gone at that point and we were coming to the start of the season with Kevin Campbell and Bryan Roy both injured.
“We’d finished third in the Premier League and I’d got a bit Charlie Big Boots. I thought I could rule the world. An Italian agent told me about Silenzi who, believe it or not, was in the Italy squad at the time. […] I watched a couple of videos and I thought, ‘He’ll do for us.’ It wasn’t our finest hour.”
Silenzi went on loan to Venezia in Italy and was widely reported to have refused to return from the loan spell, emphasising his dismay at how things had gone at Forest.
On this, Clark continued: “Andrea went back to Italy and basically refused to come back. He did a [Pierre] Van Hooijdonk and went on strike. I think Forest ended up paying up the full whack of his contract, which made a bad deal a damn sight worse.”
Still highly regarded at the club, Clark recently praised Morgan Gibbs-White for his displays in Garibaldi red which showed his keen love for Forest despite his role in a transfer he would love to forget.
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